HANOI, Sept. 1 (Reuters) - An outspoken Vietnam dissident has accused Le Kha Phieu, head of the ruling Communist Party, of being out of touch with the desires of Vietnamese people.
Nguyen Dan Que's comments, in a statement received by Reuters on Wednesday, were in reaction to a recent speech in which Phieu said any calls for democracy and human rights in Vietnam were ``lies and cheating.''
``General Secretary Le Kha Phieu recently denounced the human rights and democracy movement in Vietnam,'' Que said.
``The Vietnamese people dismiss his remarks as the ill-thinking of an out-dated person rather than that of a sober-minded leader of a political party in our modern times.''
Direct public criticism from inside Vietnam of the country's top leaders is rare.
Phieu's speech was delivered to a plenum of the party's 170-member Central Committee on August 16, but only reported by state-controlled media on Tuesday.
The Communist Party, which has 2.3 million members out of a population of 79 million, tolerates little or no dissent and monopolizes power at all levels of society in Vietnam.
The party says it actively supports a form of centralized democracy to ensure and protect the ``mastery of the people.''
Former Nobel Peace Prize nominee Que, who was released under an amnesty last September, has spent some 20 of the last 23 years in jail for his political beliefs. He is the only member in Vietnam of rights group Amnesty International.
``The centralized democracy (Phieu) praised might have been enticing in the 19th century but not now on the threshold of the third millennium. The Vietnamese people feel Phieu is trying in vain to deceive and frustrate them,'' Que said.
He called on the elite 19-member Politburo to examine themselves, otherwise they risked having their power eroded.
``The Politburo should awaken self-judgment and stop continuing their demagogic manoeuvres that cannot mislead anyone anymore,'' he said.
``Otherwise the Politburo will be denied by the people who already don't like the way the country is being run.''
Que, who says he is under tight surveillance at his Ho Chi Minh City home, last week urged former foes Hanoi and Washington to quickly approve a landmark trade pact, saying the deal would help weaken tight political controls in Vietnam.
He has also said he wanted to meet U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during her official visit next week to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.